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Showing posts from February, 2024

Dr. Lee Jin-soo's Plastic Surgery Essay 40 : Causes of 'Maskholes

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  I am a surgeon. Since all personnel involved in surgery must wear masks, I have been familiar with masks since before the COVID-19 era. During my residency in plastic surgery, I spent almost all day in the operating room. While I often saw my physician colleagues even outside the operating room, whom I knew by their original faces, the situation was different for the operating room nurses. I saw them every day, but always with masks on. However, every month, when the residents' affiliations changed, we held a sort of farewell gathering called 'farewell dinner.' Typically, most of the doctors and nurses with whom I had worked in the operating room would attend. It was during these gatherings that we would see each other's bare faces for the first time, and it often came as a surprise. This was because the impression we had from just seeing each other's eyes was significantly different from seeing the whole face for the first time. Have you heard the term 'maskh

Orthognathic revision surgery

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In reality, the topic of orthognathic revision surgery is quite challenging to handle. Even as I write this, I feel a sense of apprehension... These days, there has been a significant increase in the number of people seeking consultations for orthognathic surgery and actually undergoing the procedure. Once, when celebrities appeared on TV after undergoing orthognathic surgery during their hiatus and showed dramatic changes in their faces, the curiosity of the general public surged. Due to such curiosity, when people searched on portal sites, it became an issue, and the surgery began to be widely known even among the general public. Furthermore, it was often mentioned as if undergoing orthognathic surgery could make one look like a celebrity. Due to these issues, orthognathic surgery came to be perceived as a means to become more beautiful, leading to an increase in cases of orthognathic surgery among the general public. However, indiscriminate orthognathic surgeries led to a rise in ca

Forehead Revision Surgery is not an easy choice.

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  Forehead revision surgery is not an easy choice. Although this content was posted a few days ago, the number of people visiting for revision surgery has been increasing recently. It seems that many people who underwent surgery during the summer vacation or holiday are considering revision surgery due to dissatisfaction or side effects. Usually, revision surgery is performed after six months post-surgery. Today, we will look into forehead revision surgery. Forehead revision surgery is typically performed due to asymmetry or unsatisfactory results after the initial surgery, such as frontal bone non-union. Since it involves resecting and re-fixating bones, it can be a challenging procedure. Therefore, extensive surgical experience and years of experience in bone surgery are necessary. In the case of forehead revision surgery, since the bones have already been resected during the initial surgery, it becomes difficult to re-resect them to match the shape again. Additionally, there may be

Dr. Lee Jin-soo's Plastic Surgery Essay 39: Skull Models and Memento Mori

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  I am a plastic surgeon specializing mainly in facial bone surgery. Mastering the shape of facial bones and understanding them in three dimensions is the first step in studying facial bone surgery. I am someone who is particularly familiar with the appearance of skulls. In my clinic, there are several skull models (though "cranium models" would be a more accurate term, I'll continue to use "skull" here as it is more commonly used) displayed. I primarily use these when explaining the skeletal structure of the face and the content of facial bone surgery during consultations. However, ordinary people may feel a slightly eerie fear when they see skull models. This might be because skulls are symbolically associated with death. As skulls symbolize death, they frequently appear in art when the theme of death is required. One of the most representative paintings that come to mind when we think of skulls is "Vanitas Still Life." "Vanitas" is a Latin

Dr. Lee Jin-soo's Plastic Surgery Essay 38 - Is What You See Really the Truth?

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  This artwork is "Sunrise - Impression" painted by Claude Monet, a representative figure of Impressionism at the end of the 19th century. It's a famous painting that served as the archetype of Impressionism. It expresses the feeling of the sunrise, which changes every moment. However, when you look at this painting, the colors vary slightly depending on whether you see it in person, through a book, or on a monitor, or depending on the sources that introduce it. Looking at pictures with different color schemes makes you desire to fly to Paris to see this painting in person. However, upon closer reflection, is what you see when you actually see it in person the true colors of the painting? Even when you see it in person, colors may appear differently depending on conditions like lighting and viewing angle. What do people believe in? What do they trust the most? There's a saying that you should believe only what you see with your own eyes. In other words, you can only b